Eating Exercise Calories?

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gracienkaidens_momma
gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My fiance and I are having a huge disagreement about the topic of eating exercise calories. He says if I want to lose weight faster that I should not eat any of my exercise cals. He added that I need to create a large deficit by burning off the calories I eat. When I told him that I was told on here to eat mostly all of my exercise calories he said that I will not lose any weight that way. I don't know what to do. Any feedback?
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  • ginnyroxx
    ginnyroxx Posts: 763
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    you can do a search for "exercise calories" and find many topics discussing both sides of the fence.

    I personally eat some of mine but not all.

    eta: i wish it could be as easy as calories in/calories out. but noooooooo.....
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    A big part of it depends on what your daily calorie goal is. You don't want to eat fewer than 1200 net calories. So if your calorie goal is set at 1200 and you exercise you need to eat those calories back. Otherwise you risk eating to little and sending your body into starvation mode. However, if you have a higher daily calorie goal, like 1500, and you only burn 200-300 calories from exercise, you don't need to eat those calories if you don't want to.
  • BillyLightening
    BillyLightening Posts: 25
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    Yeah I'm a little confused by this too. If I ate all my exercise calories I'd be eating welllllllll over 2000 calories a day, that doesn't seem quite right if I want to actually LOSE weight.
  • tigertchr23
    tigertchr23 Posts: 418 Member
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    A big part of it depends on what your daily calorie goal is. You don't want to eat fewer than 1200 net calories. So if your calorie goal is set at 1200 and you exercise you need to eat those calories back. Otherwise you risk eating to little and sending your body into starvation mode. However, if you have a higher daily calorie goal, like 1500, and you only burn 200-300 calories from exercise, you don't need to eat those calories if you don't want to.

    I completely agree!
  • gracienkaidens_momma
    gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
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    My calorie goal is set to 1200. I am 5'0 and 125 and my goal weight is 115. He said it's good to get into starvation mode because my body will start using up my fat storage, hence causing weight loss. That doesn't sound right to me!
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    My calorie goal is set to 1200. I am 5'0 and 125 and my goal weight is 115. He said it's good to get into starvation mode because my body will start using up my fat storage, hence causing weight loss. That doesn't sound right to me!

    That's because it isn't right. Starvation mode is when your body starts to cannibalize it's muscle tissue and organs, reserving the fat for last.

    At your size, you will most likely get more success using a smaller deficit, or in other words, eating all or most of your exercise calories.

    Here's a post that explains it better than I can.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits?hl=deficit
  • gracienkaidens_momma
    gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
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    That's what I said! We totally had a huge fight over it. He has been working out for years and cannot gain any weight. He has a super high metabolism, while I look at a doughnut and gain 5 lbs! I am going to continue what I'm doing and eat mostly all of my exercise calories because I know from my research that I am indeed right.
  • LilynEdensmom
    LilynEdensmom Posts: 612 Member
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    Mine depends on how hungry I am or sometimes I will purposely throw in an extra work out in so I can have a treat (like coing up this weekend is my daughters birthday so I'll exercise more, to offset the cake I know I will eat)...Most days I do eat a few of mine, it depends on my appetite . And I'm still loosing weight about a pound a week
  • fit_nyc
    fit_nyc Posts: 25
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    The MFP team posted an article somewhere around here that gets into the physiology of "exercise calories." You should try to find it. The bottom line was that you should try to eat them, if you want to see maximum results.
  • gracienkaidens_momma
    gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
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    I just read the article that the other member posted above. It said for someone my size I should eat my exercise calories so my body knows it's okay to burn fat storage. It absolutely makes sense. I think I will still try to maintain a deficit each day of 100-200 cals, but I"ll eat most of my exercise calories.
  • HerbieSue
    HerbieSue Posts: 288
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    I don't get the eating of your exercise calories either. Why waste my time exercising and burning 200 calories if I am just gonna eat 200 calories worth of food back. I do Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, and I really work up a sweat. I don't add in my exercise calories and I have finally reached my personal goal................and still losing. I think it's due to my increase in exercise!!
  • gracienkaidens_momma
    gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
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    Herbie Sue - That's what I was thinking. Your words exactly. How long have you been doing 30-Day Shred and how long did it take you to start losing?
  • WhiskeyBravo
    WhiskeyBravo Posts: 92
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    I don't eat all of my calories either...I'm trying to create a 500 calories deficit each day and burn 3500/week with cardio....so I eat some but not all...but you can tell your husband that Michael Phelps eats 10,000 calories a day while in training; imagine how great he would perform if he didn't refuel by eating his calories..... things that make you go hmmmm


    p.s. women are always right :)
  • gracienkaidens_momma
    gracienkaidens_momma Posts: 379 Member
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    On a side note -

    It seems like losing weight takes forever!! Who agrees? Maybe it's just me! I think our bodies need time to adjust to such changes. It probably thinks, "What in the world is she doing to me now?!" And then after it gets over the shock of me exercising it so much, then it will finally realize what to do, which is burn fat. That's just my thought on this subject!
  • fit_nyc
    fit_nyc Posts: 25
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    "I don't get the eating of your exercise calories either. Why waste my time exercising and burning 200 calories if I am just gonna eat 200 calories worth of food back."

    Weight loss is only one part of a healthy life style. Working out also reduces your chances of getting a slew of nasty diseases. As long as you are maintaing your calorie deficit, you'll reach you weight loss goals. Sure it might take longer than you'd like, but impatience is what got many of us here in the first place.

    Good luck, and try not to starve yourself.
  • Jess0218
    Jess0218 Posts: 138
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    Girl, im so w/ ya. My hubby sounds like your man. He blinks and burns millions of calories..oh to have his metabolism! haha

    I def never eat all my calories, i eat and I work out. I burn alot of calories sometimes and maybe I'll eat a tad more but never ALL of them. I def think it's hard to lose weight especially for those w/ little to lose, which totally sucks! haha
    Keep going girl, you'll start to notice soon. I just had to get it out of my head that it will magically happen and so I stopped lookin a myself everday measuring and lookin at every piece of flab. I know my excercise and eating right will pay off eventually :)
  • mynameisdumbnuts
    mynameisdumbnuts Posts: 111
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    I usually burn 300-400 calories when I exercise, which would put my calorie intake at 1,200 calories at the most (I try to stay around the 1,500 mark). I tried really hard not to eat the calories I expended in my workouts, but I would get so hungry, I'd just binge.

    Now I eat part of them back, maybe half. I figure it's better than losing control of myself and consuming 600 calories later on.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    I used to think that it wasn't good to eat the exercise calories back...but my first month here, I didn't lose a pound and that was when I was NOT eating them back.

    Over the last couple of weeks, I have been eating some of them back...not all, but probably about half or maybe a little more than that...and I have lost 3 pounds which means I have been losing at a rate of a pound and a half a week since I started eating more.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    grace et all who don't understand the exercise calorie thing.

    there's some great sticky posts in the General section, right at the top. Read through them, they pretty much explain everything. But to make a long story short, starvation mode = reduced fat burn, and MFP already gives you a deficit, eating exercise KEEPS you in that deficit, it doesn't shrink it. There's a sweet spot to weight loss between not losing weight because you're eating to much, and not losing much (and the wrong kind of weight, I.E. lean tissue) by eating to little, that sweet spot depends on how much fat reserves your body has. I would tell your boyfriend that he should probably read up on starvation mode through professional channels before making comments like he has, it's detrimental to your health goals.

    I'll mention one thing though, if you're a smalll person and only looking to lose a few lbs, expect it to take a long time, the body does not like to give up the last few lbs of fat reserves (over essential fat that is), it considers them healthy and necessary, even if you don't, and it won't like burning them.
  • ksv123
    ksv123 Posts: 82 Member
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    SHBoss 1673 - I enjoy your posts and concede that you are much more informed than I! I am in the position of being a small person who is just looking to lose those final 5 pounds and struggling. My diet was wonderful until my husband returned from overseas after an absence of 3 months and then hosting guests for about 3 weeks. Trying to get back in the swing of things and was wondering if I need to approach this differently that people that want to lose 20+ pounds. Thanks for your help!

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